Babaryka’s whereabouts unknown

April 28, BPN. The whereabouts of former presidential hopeful Viktar Babaryka are “unknown,” the politician’s Telegram channel reports.

Neither the Navapołack City Hospital nor Navapołack Penal Colony No. 1 can confirm his current location.

Yesterday evening, the convicted politician was still at the hospital’s surgical ward with a moderate illness.

His team calls on decision-makers “to provide exhaustive information about Babaryka’s whereabouts and physical condition” and allow relatives and lawyers to visit him. It also calls on the international community to use “all available means” to get proper answers from the authorities.

The banker-turned-politician, Babaryka, was arrested by security officers weeks before the August 2020 presidential election. The arrest prevented him from registering his candidacy for the race despite turning in 425,000 voter signatures, four times as many as required by law.

One year later, the Supreme Court sentenced him to 14 years in prison, finding him guilty of large-scale fraud and legalization of funds derived from criminal activity.

Rabočy Ruch, a worker rights group, reported the politician’s hospitalization with signs of beating and a collapsed lung on April 26.

A source told BPN that “a patient with the last name Babaryka, born in 1963,” was admitted to the Navapołack hospital. Doctors reportedly confirmed a pneumothorax. Another source said the patient might have too much fluid in his lungs.

In light of the development, the opposition’s cabinet called on the international community to “fully use the instrument of sanctions pressure on [Belarusian ruler Alaksandr] Łukašenka’s regime.”